Picking up Fragile Threads of Power is like jumping into the deep end of a pool. You are immediately and fully enveloped in the atmospheric world Schwab has built throughout her series’. She never flags on world building or character development nor does she rely on the reader to bring knowledge of the prior books to understand the world and stakes of this book.
It has been quite sometime since I have read A Darker Shade of Magic and was worried I may not be able to track some aspects of the story, but I never found that to be true. Schwab strikes the perfect balance of recapping and rebuilding the world without condescending to the reader. She revisits old favorite characters and builds complete new, and realistically imperfect people.
If you enjoy the feeling of reading by flickering candle light while wrapped in a cozy blanket while the wind howls outside in a storm, you will enjoy the feeling of this book. It is a darkly compelling tale with a complete and well developed system of magic that draws the reader in and leaves them in suspense. A word of caution- be prepared to agonize until the release of the second book in the trilogy.
Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for my honest opinion.